Saltaire Trees journey so far

Who are Saltaire Trees?

A small group of concerned residents who have lived in and around Saltaire for 10 years who have called the council to account for felling 32 trees and pushing forward a public realm project, that has failed to engage the wider community in sharing views about the scheme, inputting into designs and providing accurate and detailed information (such as the viability of replanting trees in advance of felling them for example.)

Our questions

This started with a few emails to our councillors including our green ward councillors Kevin Warnes, Martin Love and Hawaran Hussain and Labour Exec portfolio holder Val Slater. The Green councillors replied. Val Slater did not. They defended the decision very robustly and we questioned them online to open debate. We were concerned about their defence which seemed based on limited evidence from a consultation, an Arboricultural report that actually seemed to contradict the decision by saying options were endless and we questioned the influence of the potential jeopardising of public realm funding which actually was for a programme running until 2016 that could have been rolled over.

We asked about whether the ‘further jeopardising of the funding’ raised at the scrutiny committee was a genuine issue given the council could have rolled over funds and given it was also a capital programme to be spent between 2012- 2016. We asked why now when it was clear to us that the consultation had been inadequate. We have not received a response to this question.

We also asked why they had kept saying the consultation was extensive, when many people we met were shocked by what had happened. Kevin Warnes has acknowledged it was not as extensive as it could have been. Val Slater has not responded. But has put out a press release in the Bradford T&A about how the community will be happy. 

We felt disappointed, heart-broken even, about this action and even though we are busy like everyone else – we wanted to know if we were alone in feeling like this. As our small group fortunately included researchers, we set up a survey and within a week had 392 responses. Now this has grown to 428 and now includes 178 Saltaire residents. We will publish the latest results soon. We also gathered 70 heartfelt messages in the village on Valentine’s Day and spoke to people who shared our upset.

The responses about the consultation process revealed that we were not alone in feeling upset, excluded and ignored. The survey now includes 154 comments, some are positive (but very few).

We set up a Facebook page which now has nearly 300 likes and lots of engagement, and a twitter feed which has a lot of rich discussion. Lots of opinions have been shared and this is good. More views should have been sought by the council using digital platforms as well as more traditional forms. The council failed to seek out opinions. This is disgraceful when it is about what the city has described as ‘the jewel in the crown’, is a world heritage site and most importantly is home to a community of those who live and love Saltaire. 

We cannot believe the insensitivity of this act against this lovely community. An act that has divided people, upset people and indeed businesses on Victoria Road and in the village.

The support we have received has helped heal some wounds and confirm that this is not an unengaged community, just a community that missed the local newspapers and might throw away leaflets that are shoved through the door, a community that also tend to go away during school holidays when consultations are scheduled. In spite of being just a few people we have gathered opinion from more people than the council consultation and we have never resorted to post-it notes as evidence… People were paid to do this, and the councillors serving our community should have done so much better. 

Let’s not forget - others tried to show the councillors that the views and post-it notes they had gathered were not entirely representative.

Before chopping down those beautiful trees which the arboricultural report described as “of high overall value”, the Saltaire Village Preservation Society petitioned the council to have more time to consult and to not chop all of the trees. They were told their 309 signatures did not count because they had failed to use the council system but had used change.org. They re-petitioned and got another 309 signatures. The council disregarded it as the council officers told them the £700k needed to be spent – even though it was secure until 2016.

We have asked about whether the hideous road signs were part of the plan? The green councillors certainly did not know about it, but Val Slater and the council seems in no rush to take them down. After all there is a lot of research to say that trees help slow down traffic which is why some have commented about how they are now nervous about the speed on that road. May be next there will be speed bumps, more signs, chevrons… just as Titus intended?!?

We remain ignored by the leader charged with this portfolio Val Slater. However she will be coming to the Saltaire Heritage Forum at 7pm on 25^th Feb at Saltaire Methodist Church. We do hope our blog readers can come as it seems we still like traditional modes of communication too like discussions and meetings. 

So far as of midnight 19^th February, 105 people have signed our petition calling for a thorough review and for replanting more trees and numbers are growing every day. It is good to see people still believe in democracy and processes in spite of these recent actions. The petition will close on 28^th February. Here’s the link http://epetition.bradford.public-i.tv/epetition_core/community/petition/3008

We believe Bradford Council should be held to account for its consistent ignoring of people who have disagreed with their plans.

We would like to see more trees replanted and to have residents work with the designers to address this. Only 8 seems quite unreasonable when 23 of the original trees were healthy and only 1 was at risk. We have no reason to believe much that we are being told it seems about a design seemingly more focused on ‘symmetry’, ‘buildings’ and ‘paving stones’. We are not at all sure Titus would have approved of this, given his work on addressing pollution, and the fact that Bingley Road may well have not been so busy then.

It is clear we are not the only ones. Nor the only places that feel let down by those we have elected to serve our interests in Bradford. Residents have told us they feel under siege with changes happening to our village with misleading information and a distinct lack of engagement.

One resident said that it feels like if you see someone coming from Bradford Council, there is simply no point in taking part as “the council never listens anyway.”

Please sign our petition and join our FB community Saltaire Trees and twitter feed @SaltaireTrees Please do come along to that Heritage Forum too.

We still believe there is a point. We just have to make it. And make it together.